Marriage Is A Very Bad Contract ----- Merle Thornton
Without Prejudice
Merle Thornton is now 81 and a Womans Right Activist who famously with a friend chained herself to the Bar at the Regatta Hotel in 1965 as women were not allowed in there .
Thornton says that while she was never "emotionally indulged" as a child on the contrary, her parents were so frightened of their clever daughter getting "a swelled head" they rarely praised her but what they did do was treat seriously her intellectual development.
"My mother was very strong on education and my father also believed in it, and they encouraged me. I suppose there was something exceptional in my parents' treatment of me, for someone in their economic position certainly to support a girl at university at that time was very unusual. It continued to be extremely difficult; people would say to my dad, whatever was he doing, sending a girl to the university; as in, she'll just get married." She laughs again.
When Merle Wilson and Neil Thornton did get married, it was largely because in those days there was little alternative. "I didn't ever believe in marriage in terms of believing in the marriage contract; I think it's not a good contract, but I'm not opposed to people loving each other or even living together for a long while. [But] marriage was a necessity at the time.
We had some friends who tried living together but they were persecuted in many ways, in employment, accommodation they couldn't get a flat, you know and of course in society. Had they had children in that unmarried state, even the children would have been socially excluded. These really were different times."
Thornton herself had to conceal her marriage for three-and-a-half years, lest she lose her job in the public service. At the time, one in three Australian workers worked for the public service in some capacity, so changing the bar on married women working was no small thing.
She is not unaware of the irony of gay men and women fighting in 2012 for the right to marry: "I was talking to a much younger gay friend just recently, and I said, 'I just don't know why you want to get married because I think it's a bad contract, it's got all sorts of history against it' and he said, 'I don't want to get married. I just want the right to get married!' And I thought, well, I can really relate to that . . . "
Love it, Janette
Merle Thornton is now 81 and a Womans Right Activist who famously with a friend chained herself to the Bar at the Regatta Hotel in 1965 as women were not allowed in there .
Thornton says that while she was never "emotionally indulged" as a child on the contrary, her parents were so frightened of their clever daughter getting "a swelled head" they rarely praised her but what they did do was treat seriously her intellectual development.
"My mother was very strong on education and my father also believed in it, and they encouraged me. I suppose there was something exceptional in my parents' treatment of me, for someone in their economic position certainly to support a girl at university at that time was very unusual. It continued to be extremely difficult; people would say to my dad, whatever was he doing, sending a girl to the university; as in, she'll just get married." She laughs again.
When Merle Wilson and Neil Thornton did get married, it was largely because in those days there was little alternative. "I didn't ever believe in marriage in terms of believing in the marriage contract; I think it's not a good contract, but I'm not opposed to people loving each other or even living together for a long while. [But] marriage was a necessity at the time.
We had some friends who tried living together but they were persecuted in many ways, in employment, accommodation they couldn't get a flat, you know and of course in society. Had they had children in that unmarried state, even the children would have been socially excluded. These really were different times."
Thornton herself had to conceal her marriage for three-and-a-half years, lest she lose her job in the public service. At the time, one in three Australian workers worked for the public service in some capacity, so changing the bar on married women working was no small thing.
She is not unaware of the irony of gay men and women fighting in 2012 for the right to marry: "I was talking to a much younger gay friend just recently, and I said, 'I just don't know why you want to get married because I think it's a bad contract, it's got all sorts of history against it' and he said, 'I don't want to get married. I just want the right to get married!' And I thought, well, I can really relate to that . . . "
Love it, Janette
